Huffman in the district, anticipating coming budget crisis

Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) says partisanship in the nation's capital is just as bad as everyone thinks and congressional Republicans are playing a dangerous game with the U.S. economy over the severe budget cuts known as sequestration that are due to take effect in March.

But, he says, he's seen some rhetorical shifts over the past 30 days among the GOP leadership that signals they, too, want to avoid the cuts.

"This is real brinksmanship," he said Tuesday, adding that the cuts may actually have to start going through before the GOP retreats. "They may need that reality to sink in."

Citizens, Huffman said, will certainly see reality if the deep cuts in special education, child care, veterans assistance and many other domestic programs are enacted.

Huffman was back in Ukiah Tuesday for the first time since going off to Washington as the newly elected U.S. House Representative for the 2nd congressional district.

As a freshman congressman, Huffman said he is learning fast and soaking in everything. He considers himself a progressive Democrat and is a member of the Progressive Caucus, but points out that he would rather be known as someone who will work with anyone of any political stripe if it means good policy and worthwhile legislation. He points to his cosponsorship of Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell's bill to legalize hemp growing in the U.S.

Members of Congress get requests to sponsor bills from other members of Congress every day. In letters to each other, members ask for support for everything from Peach Month to national parks to housing assistance to defense projects. Huffman said he and his staff sit down a couple of days a week to go through all the requests.

"I want to limit (sponsoring other bills) to things that I think are meaningful," he said, noting he sometimes has to tell staff no to things they suggest he cosponsor. The staff, he says, often want him to cosponsor anything a fellow Democrat sponsors as a message of support.

Among others, he has supported bills to change federal marijuana laws. One, to allow the federal government to defer to state laws around marijuana and second, to reschedule medical marijuana so that state and federal laws no longer conflict.

As for bills he will sponsor, he says he's working on legislation to remove Klamath River dams and other legislation on climate change and on coastal issues like preserving the Stornetta public lands.

Huffman has a seat on the House Budget Committee, chaired by Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP's vice-presidential candidate in last year's election.

"Paul Ryan is a very bright and impressive guy, very intense," Huffman said. "But so is our ranking minority member (Democrat) Chris Van Hollen. They are like budget gladiators."

And while partisanship on the national budget is evident, Huffman says the lines are really drawn in his other committee assignment, the Natural Resources Committee, where the Republicans in control are determined, he said, "to open as much public land as possible to mining and oil drilling."

In the new Congress, the Democrats gained a few more seats in the House of Representatives, although not enough to take control. Nonetheless, Huffman says it's clear that "the Republicans are trying to figure out a path forward." He says they're worried about their future as a party and have become "victims of their own very effective gerrymandering," in which safe Republican districts were drawn by Republicans that have also turned out to be ultra-conservative, and against the grain of the national electorate.

Besides the imminent crisis over sequestration and the debt ceiling, Huffman said gun control is another big topic of conversation in Washington right now. Huffman's colleague (and predecessor representing Mendocino County) Rep. Mike Thompson (D- Napa Valley) was appointed by Vice President Joe Biden to take a lead in formulating new gun safety legislation. But as a California legislator, gun safety legislation is nothing new to Huffman - nor should it be to any Californian, he says, pointing out that all of the things now being discussed at the federal level have been California law for a long time.

"None of it is new to California," he says, adding that he does remind his constituents of that as the federal legislation proceeds.

So far, Huffman says the only real surprise in Washington is the sheer size of the congressional institution ? all the districts, all the states, all the different members with their opinions and policy objectives.

And "the hardwired partisanship. It's worse than Sacramento."

Huffman has joined a "no labels" Problem Solvers Caucus made up of members of both parties to see where "easy process fixes" can be achieved. Through them Huffman says he sees some progress among freshmen of both parties, who seem to - at least for now - want to break through the political stalemate.